Monthly Highlights
November 2006
GREG EVANS AND MICHAEL DUBICK were appointed by the governor's office to the Lane Transit District Board. Evans is special projects coordinator in the Multicultural Center and founder of the Rites of Passage program at Lane. He's been with Lane since 1995. He was the "overwhelming choice" among eight candidates for the Subdistrict 6 position, according to a quote from Nancy Goss-Duran of the governor's office, in The Register-Guard. Dubick was one of three applicants for the Subdistrict 3 position. He served on Lane's board from 1994-99.
VOTERS REJECTED LANE’S LOCAL OPTION LEVY in the Nov. 7 election. The vote was 57 percent opposed, 43 percent in favor. It is the first time in at least 20 years that Lane lost an election. Voters approved a construction bond in 1995, and an operating levy in 1990. Statewide, all six community college measures on the ballot were defeated. College presidents believe part of the cause is a deterioration in community awareness and connection with retirees and workers, since legislators denied funding for personal enrichment programming. Other reasons cited in the media were a low key campaign; low position on the ballot; tax fatigue by the electorate; poor image due to the past few years of program reductions and tuition increases; and sentiment against public employee organized labor. The levy would have brought in about $1 million a year for five years and would not have solved Lane’s long term financial problems, but it would have helped.
LANE WON ITS FIFTH SUSTAINABILITY AWARD in 18 months, the Nonprofit Trashbuster Award from Lane County Public Works, presented Nov. 7 by the Lane County Board of Commissioners. Lane recycles more than 60 percent of its waste, contributing to an associated cost savings of $60,000. Other recent awards: Recycler of the Year Award for an Organization from the Association of Oregon Recyclers, July 2005; Community Sustainability Award from City of Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, January 2006; Campus Sustainability Leadership Award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, October 2006; National Recycling Coalition Award for Outstanding Recycling Program for a College or University from the National Recycling Coalition, October 2006. Lane’s leadership in sustainability also landed the college a mention in the November 2006 issue of University Business magazine, in a column on “Models of Campus Sustainability.”
BUDGET DEVELOPMENT FOR 2007/08 progressed with Board of Education discussion on Nov. 8, and at departments and divisions. The college is considering three scenarios. The best case scenario assumes $529 million in state funding for Oregon’s 17 community colleges, the State Board of Education recommendation, which would result in a $1.7 million deficit at Lane. The mid case scenario assumes state funding of $500 million, or a deficit of $3.5 million. The worst case assumes state funding of $470 million, the governor’s current proposal, or a deficit of $5.5 million.
THE TRANSPORTATION FEE was increased from $16 to $19 for main campus credit students, effective winter term, due to increases in LTD fees. The noncredit fee remains $5. The transportation fee goes toward bus passes and parking lot maintenance.
Excerpted from news sources by Joan Aschim, Marketing and Public Relations, (541) 463-5591, November 2006.